Death's Manager
Courtesy of SilverWolf7007
Chapter Seven – The House Elf Version of Voldie
Or, Ginny's Backstory
So far, the search had been utterly fruitless, and after a quick firecall up to Minerva, she too professed little hope in finding a solution anytime soon.
As such, they had mostly given up.
Not, of course, that they weren't still trying. The problem was, they kept getting distracted.
It had all started, funnily enough, when Draco had fallen off his stool with a loud splash, drawing everyone's attention.
Safely perched on her desk, Pansy peered down at him with an arched eyebrow. "Something wrong, Draco dearest?"
Instead of his customary scowl and snarky reply, Draco just stared at her before he seemed to realise where he was.
"Damn!" He leaped out of the milk in an impressive display of acrobatics and scrambled onto his own desk, trying desperately to get the milk off him.
Severus, watching from atop his own desk, shook his head exasperatedly. "Draco, it'll never work."
The blond gave him a desperate look. "But I'm going to smell!" he wailed.
Blaise blinked slowly, eyeing his friend. "Draco, you already smell. What's new?"
Draco glared at everyone else in the room. "What happens to milk that you leave out for ages?" he asked of no one in particular, ignoring Blaise's question.
There was confused silence until Seamus's eyes widened in realisation. "It goes off," he answered in a weak voice, staring down into the white lake with renewed revulsion. "Oh my god. We're going to be covered in off milk."
As she snuck back into the History of Magic classroom, Ginny was yet again amazed at Binns' complete and utter ignorance at her antics.
She had spent the first half of the lesson writing out her articles for the Midday Prophet, interviewing Luna as she was the only student neither asleep nor note taking other than Ginny herself.
After that, she had gathered up her Gryffindor courage and stood. Not really surprisingly, Binns hadn't noticed, so she had left for the Owlery.
On her way back, she had noticed the way the milk seemed to be damming up at one door in particular, and had entered, finding Damon and Bast inside as she had suspected.
It had been a little over five months ago now, on Halloween, when she had first met the two vampires.
Having left the party in the Great Hall, she had accidentally wandered into a deserted classroom, hoping for either some peace and quiet or some first year Hufflepuff and/or Ravenclaws to torment.
Neither had been the case, but she had found two apparently grown men bickering over whether Superman would beat Batman in a fight.
Knowing that neither was supposed to be in the school, Ginny had demanded to know who they were and what their purpose was, an announcement of her presence that had caused Bast to fall off his chair in shock.
This, of course, led to Damon being unable to contain his laughter for about ten minutes and thirty seven seconds, most of which both Bast and Ginny had spent glaring at him.
Finally, Ginny had gained her explanation.
Cue Trippy Flashback, Complete with Glitter
Still snickering slightly, Damon sat on the nearest desk and gestured for Ginny to do the same. Once she had, he spoke. "I'm Damon, this is Bast. We're vampires, and we're here…well, we're casing the joint, I guess."
Bast raised an eyebrow. "We are not conducting a robbery, Damon."
The silver-eyed man sighed. "Yes, yes, I know that, Sebastian." He turned back to Ginny. "You see, we're helping to fulfil a prophecy spoken about one thousand years ago by Helga Hufflepuff."
Ginny gave him a sceptical look. "Uh huh. And I'm supposed to believe that?"
"Er, yeah?"
She groaned. "Honestly! Okay, I'll bite. What kind of prophecy? And exactly how are you helping to fulfil it?"
"Well, back in the good old days, Helga, along with the other Founders of this place, had two quite good friends and co-workers who were vampires, namely Jenissa and James," Damon began.
"Because we vamps live as long as we can stay alive for," Bast continued. "Helga and the rest asked them and their vampiric descendents to watch over the school and whatnot. Also, when Helga gave this prophecy, she asked them to carry it out."
Ginny was frowning thoughtfully. "Okay, that all makes sense. So what's the prophecy?"
Damon winced. "Ah, now that's the tricky part. We have to get Harry James Potter, Boy-Who-Lived, away from here and into the office of Tom, Manager for Death, in order for it all to come about."
"You'll never manage it," was her immediate reaction. "There's no way you can get anywhere near Harry, not with the way Dumbles has been having him watched lately."
Bast nodded. "Exactly. Which is why we're here, in order to create a distraction and plant the transporter, so Nissa can move Harry."
"All right." Ginny gave them both a bright grin. "How can I help?"
End Trippy Flashback and Glitter
After hashing out plans of various merits for an hour, Ginny had promised to meet them in that classroom once a day after dinner in order to work everything out.
Which was, of course, why she had ended up planting the device that allowed Jenissa to transport Harry from Hogwarts to Death's Office.
Many people, her brother and Hermione included, would have seen this as a betrayal of Harry's trust and friendship.
Ginny knew better.
After vanishing from the Dursley's mere days after returning there following his fifth year, Harry had turned up at the Burrow on the twenty eighth of August.
No one really knew where he had been or what he had been up to, but Ginny knew more than most, for which she was very grateful.
His attitude and position in the war had altered somewhat, and he was desperate to get out from under Dumbledore's thumb. She knew that, given the choice, he'd have jumped at the chance to leave and visit with the Manger of Death, so she had no qualms in making that decision for him.
Of course, Damon and Bast would have found a solution anyway, so there was no real reason why she couldn't help.
It wasn't only Harry who had changed, though she knew that a lot of the other changes were due to him.
One of his earliest acts had been anonymously buying out and controlling the Daily Prophet, and when he'd written and asked her, she had immediately accepted his offer to be their in-Hogwarts correspondent whenever the need arose.
She hadn't submitted many articles until now, and she knew there were likely to be many more before the crisis was through.
After all, she had incited a great deal of it.
Severus gave up on his reading about half an hour before lunch and eyed his class. Each student, along with himself, had moved from their stools and were now seated on the desks, as the milk levels had risen from ankle depth to almost the height of the stools, which if nothing else was disgusting and distracting.
If he was going to be honest, he doubted very much that there was anything that they would be able to do about the milk.
Although, he thought, watching as a flock of bright pink and blue former owls swam past, he really hoped there was something.
He was suddenly interrupted from his musings by several loud pops as the room suddenly became occupied by House Elves, which immediately sank beneath the surface.
Moments later they bobbed back up to the top again, grabbing onto unoccupied desks and pulling themselves onto them.
One in particular, wearing an odd assortment of clothing including a tea cosy and yellow and brown striped socks, moved to the front to act as spokesman… or spokes-elf.
"Professor Snape sir! Hermione Granger! We is having a problem!"
The first to recover from the utter shock of the events was Pansy. "Dobby, right? If the problem is milk, then I'm sure you've noticed we all have the same problem. If it's not…"
Dobby was bouncing impatiently on his feet and began to speak the moment the Slytherin girl hesitated. "The school is being doomed! We is all going to die!"
Hermione shook off her own shock. "Dobby! Whatever are you talking about?"
His large eyes went very round and he leaned forward to speak in a loud whisper. "We House Elves is making a big mistake. Shameful, it is."
Dobby looked so dejected that Millicent, who really was a kind soul under those Slytherin robes, impulsively gave him a hug. "I'm sure it's not that bad. Why don't you tell us?"
Tearing up, Dobby nodded. "We is letting It out, by accident, Dobby swears it was an accident!"
Draco frowned. "'It'?"
"We do not speak It's name," said another House Elf in a hushed voice.
"Must be like the House Elf Voldie," Seamus mused. "Or the House Elf version of a basilisk to an acromantula."
Dobby nodded, relieved that they seemed to understand.
Severus was frowning worriedly. "Not to sound insensitive – "
"Because we all know how very out of character that would be," Theodore murmured.
Ignoring him, Severus continued. "But Dobby, we really need to know what 'It' is. We can't help if we don't know."
"Can you write it down?" Hermione gently asked the trembling elf.
He shook his head so hard his tea cosy fell off into the milk. "Dobby is being unable to write, Miss Hermione."
"The Mutation," whispered the House Elf that had spoken before. "The Evolution. The Deterioration. The Decomposition. The Decayed."
All eyes moved to the little Elf.
"But what is it?" Dean questioned.
Seeing that she didn't intend to reply, Parvati tried her luck in coaxing out the information. "Please tell us. If we know, we can stop it. And also, what's your name?
Hope in her large eyes, the House Elf nodded. "I is being Peppy, Miss. And It…It is being…" She stopped and gulped loudly. "The evolving mouldy gouda civilisation uprising." She burst into tears, and the other House Elves immediately began to comfort her.
The humans in the room just stared.
Hm. Well, that was interesting. And fun. Again.
tenshi no oni – Thanks heaps, and yeah I know the feeling, having people wake up and yell is a bad thing. Gets my mum all shitty. And I'm in Tassie, wishing for more snow to keep me out of college. It isn't going to happen, though.
ISC – Yeesh, yep, I agree, lucky indeed. Although I think I may feel sorry for your friends should you unleash the horrors…and Harry shall be back in the next chapter, scaring people quite frequently.
Shakespeares Whore – Yes, much trouble. We can't have Salazar out late, Rowena and Helga get annoyed. Godric, too. I'm glad you like my vampires, I rather adore them myself (but don't tell them that!). They're all a bit nuts, but they're fun. And the Master Plan…well, I have Herring eating away at the little snag that's got me caught – the prank on Harry and Draco. I mean, know what they're going to be, I just have to write them out.
ReginaLucifer – Hee hee. Glad you liked Luna, and I added in a little Twinkle mention in the next chap.
Kaaera – Well, good luck with Discworld anyway. And hey, there's an idea…though I'm not sure Tom could take that much of Harry at once. He might go crazy…er. Meh, well, I tried what I could in explaining stuff, but if you can think of anything else you need/want to know, say so and I'll see what I can do.
DeppDRACOmaniac – Indeed it shall. And don't worry, it was only the official school owls that are now swimming around. Hedwig, Pig, Draco's owls and any owl owned by a specific student or teacher are still flying.
Howl – Glad you enjoyed it all. As for Ginny…heh heh, I couldn't help but bring her in. And who the hell is who? Now I'm confused… ;-)
In the next chapter, Salazar and Tom react to Harry's declaration, some more dead people show up, and Harry finds good use for his spare time. And the spare space in Tom's office, too…
Please review!
S. Wolf